Both Motorola and Flipkart slashed the price of the Moto E recently, leading to speculation that a new variant was on its way, and as expected, here it is! The company has quietly launched the all-new and highly anticipated Moto E second gen device.

Given that the phone is aimed at developing nations, we expect the device to reach the Indian shores soon. So what’s new about the phone? The successor to the Moto E has improved some key specifications and also adds support for 4G LTE. We list some of these in detail:

Design

Motorola’s new Moto E is slightly larger than its predecessor, measuring 129.9 x 66.8 x 12.3 mm. However, it retains the same thickness and also adds a light curve to the design. In terms of portability, it seems to be slightly heavier at 145 grams. The previous Moto E weighed 142 grams. But lets face it, a mere 38 grams is unlikely to make much of a difference to a user.

Moto E is now more colourful

Design-wise, Motorola has added some subtle changes and tried to employ the same aesthetics that are already seen in the higher-end Moto G and Moto X devices. If you remember, the Moto E comes with two metal bars – above and below the display. Motorola has now bid goodbye to the one below the display.

Motorola also gets more colourful with the new Moto E. It has introduced some new covers that it calls ‘Bands’. These bands are available in six colour options including Golden Yellow, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry, Purple and Red. The new model also gets five “Grip shells” available in Golden Yellow, Charcoal, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry.

Display

The Moto E second generation also comes with a slight change in the display. It has been increased from 4.3-inch to 4.5-inch, making it more similar in size to the Moto G. However, Motorola disappoints with the resolution, which doesn’t seem to have changed. It still retains the same qHD display at 540 x 960 pixels. This means effectively, that the Moto E 2014 model will come with a better display as more pixels are pushed onto a smaller display size. The pixel density of the older Moto E is 265 ppi compared to the 245ppi seen in the 2015 model. However, to the human eye, this shouldn’t make much of a difference either.

The new Moto E is out.

OS

While Motorola is still conducting an Android Lollipop soak test for the Moto E 2014 model, its successor now runs Android Lollipop. This means, you can expect the latest OS goodies from Google on the budget handset. Motorola has also reportedly added features like Moto Display for notifications and updates.

Camera

One of the biggest drawbacks of the original Moto E was the lack of a front-facing camera, especially considering the popularity of ‘taking selfies’. With the new Moto E, Motorola has fixed the issue. You still get a mediocre VGA camera, but we suppose that this is still better than having none. The company has also retained the 5MP rear snapper, but it has been improved from a ‘fixed focus’ to ‘auto-focus’.

The company has also played with some gestures for the camera. If you twist your wrist twice, the new Moto E will quickly launch the camera. This is something new and was not seen in the previous version of the Moto E.

Storage

Another sore point for users of the Moto E was the limited storage. Motorola has now doubled the storage capacity to 8GB in the new model. Moreover, one can also opt for the 16GB model. It can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD card slot.

Processor

The model comes with a quad-core processor, which is a step up from the dual-core seen in the original Moto E. The Moto E second gen comes powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2GHz. This is an improvement from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 CPU seen in the Moto E first gen. It has retained the 1GB RAM.

Battery

In terms of battery, the Moto E 2015 model is fuelled by 2390mAh capacity. This is a jump from the 1920mAh battery found on the Moto E (2014) model.

Price

The Moto E will be launched in 50 countries starting with the US. The unlocked 3G version will cost $119.99 that translates to approx. Rs 7430. This means, we can expect it to cost slightly higher than the said price in India. The 4G LTE version will cost $149.99 (approx. Rs 9288). However, it isn’t clear if the 4G version will be made available in India.

Read our complete review, to know more about the Moto E (first generation).